‘The New Real’ and ‘Here in America’ focus on the battle between principle and pragmatism in charged circumstances
“Fundamentally, The New Real is a Western,” says David Edgar of his latest play for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Just a minute. A Western? The New Real, produced in association with Headlong theatre, is an epic, cut-and-thrust political thriller about election strategists, pinging back and forth between the US and eastern Europe during the early 21st century. Dirty tricks, yes; bar brawls, yes — but horses, Stetsons and saloon doors? Not so much.
“Well,” says Edgar, with a smile, “it’s about two people being called into the village and ending up in a High Noon shootout against each other.”
In fact, it is one of two new Edgar plays featuring a high-stakes showdown between allies: a metaphorical “shootout” that keys into a much broader issue. In The New Real — subtitled “an origin story” — two American political strategists grapple with the complex legacy of the collapse of the communist bloc and a world rapidly realigning around new political coalitions…
